Re: New phone / accessibility issues

[Josh de Lioncourt]

The iPhone does have a couple of traditional buttons on it, so 
presumably they will hard code into the phone that to press and hold one 
of these, or a combination of them, will dial 911. That is a simple and 
logical sollution, and i don't know why other manufacturers wouldn't 
have done that with the rejected phones you mentioned. Some phones 
already come with a 911 function built in now, so this isn't a stretch 
at all.

Greg Kearney wrote:
In doing some research into this matter I have found two 
regulations/laws that may have a bearing on the iPhone. I want to 
stress that we DO NOT KNOW if the iPhone is inaccessible or not. So 
let's assume that it isn't for now.

First is the Telecommunication Act. This would seem to require Apple 
to produce a phone that is accessible. The act give an out if it is 
not readily able to do so. However given that the phone run OSX by 
Apple's own admission then it would be hard to argue that it is not 
readily about to make the phone accessible. The other option the act 
provided is that the maker, Apple, could provide another accessible 
model. No good in this case as this is the only model offered.

The second and perhaps far more serious issue is one of FCC approval. 
The FCC has never approved a screen only phone and there have been 
several attempts to get one approved. The reason for not approving 
them has nothing to do with accessibility it has to do with safety. 
They were rejected because in the case of an accident where the screen 
was broken the phone would be unable to dial 911. It will be 
interesting to see how Apple deals with this issue.

The last issue would not matter what Apple claims the iPhone to be. I 
think it a ridiculous argument that the Telecommunication Act would 
not apply because the iPhone isn't in fact a phone. I mean they call 
it the iPhone after all.

Greg Kearney